Indian weddings too big, says government

Steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal holds a speech at the Palace of Versailles, which was used for part of his daughter's wedding ceremony. The whole event reportedly cost him £30m.
Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features

The big, fat Indian wedding is about to lose weight, if the government has its way.

Aware that the soaring price of onions, flour and other basic foodstuffs is causing serious political damage, ministers have suggested restricting "wastage" at the gargantuan feasts that typify matrimonial festivities.

Food and consumer affairs minister, KV Thomas, said that close to 15% of all grains and vegetables in India are wasted through "extravagant and luxurious functions", according to the Mail Today newspaper.

The government wants to introduce legislation to "curb profligacy" to preserve stocks for the poor, the newspaper reported.

Weddings in India have become more extravagant in recent years as the newly rich look to show off their wealth. The most spectacular ceremonies – such as those of the hotelier Vikram Chatwal or the daughter of the steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal – have seen astonishing displays of opulence. Expensive gifts accompanying invitations, tonnes of imported flowers, top chefs flown in from New York or Tokyo and festivities spread across multiple cities have become almost commonplace.

India's booming upper middle classes have been inspired to create their own displays. No wedding is now complete without at least three different cuisines offered to guests: north or south Indian, "continental" or European and a third, selected from Mexican, Japanese and Chinese, or chinjabi, as the local version of the latter is known.

"It's true that people waste a lot because there's a huge variety of dishes and they take a bit of everything to try it. There's a limit to the amount anyone can eat though," said Neeti Bhargava, who runs Mystical Moments wedding organisers in Delhi. "You can't really control it. There are people who really don't know how to spend all the money they've got."

The ostentation goes well beyond food. One new trend is the use of helicopters instead of the traditional white horse or decorated coach for the bride and groom.

Subhash Goyal, who runs an air charter business, said: "It's mainly people like farmers around the outskirts of Delhi or other cities who have made millions simply because their land has suddenly got to be worth so much money.

"Some people want to propose on a flight. Some people want to go in a helicopter to pick up the bride instead of going on a horse."

Fees for the helicopters start at £2,000. There are currently no plans to restrict expenditure on aircraft.

The people hit hardest by the food inflation – the poor – are the core constituency of the current government, led by the centre-left Congress party. However, the ambitious food security bill aimed at eradicating hunger in India is proving difficult to draft. It would guarantee more than two-thirds of the population had enough to eat, its supporters claim. About half of India's children under five are malnourished.

Opposition politicians attacked the plan to restrict wedding expenditure as a throwback to the 1960s when India's economy was centrally planned on a Soviet socialist model. Other critics argued that tackling corruption and wastage in India's deeply inefficient subsidised food distribution system, the biggest in the world, would do more good.

However, Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, a Congress MP who has previously tried to introduce a private bill curbing extravagant weddings, said he welcomed the government's move. "Extravagance in weddings should be controlled," he told the Mail Today. " It's a vulgar display of wealth."